Poll: Rubio no help to GOP in 2012

Putting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on the Republican presidential ticket would result in a net gain of virtually no Latino votes for the GOP, a new poll shows.

While 24 percent of Hispanic voters surveyed said they would be more likely to vote Republican if Rubio appeared on the ballot, that was nearly canceled out by the 21 percent who told pollsters they would be less likely to vote Republican if the Cuban-American senator is the party’s vice presidential nominee, according to the Latino Decisions poll Monday.

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And 46 percent said that Rubio running would have absolutely no effect on their vote.

A senior Republican pushed back against the poll, saying that in the critical numbers — such as among Florida Latino voters and Hispanic Republicans — Rubio proves very helpful to the ticket. For Latino Republicans, 39 percent say Rubio’s inclusion on the ticket would make them much more likely to vote Republican, and 29 percent of all Latino voters living in Florida regardless of party say the same.

“In the numbers that actually matter, he brings a lot to the ticket,” the official said.

Meanwhile, overall enthusiasm among Latino voters continues to drop — now only 44 percent of Latino voters say they are very excited about participating in the 2012 election, down three points since the October Latino Decisions poll. Still, 54 percent say they are certain they will vote to re-elect President Barack Obama.

“It seems like this is in part because there’s only competition on the Republican side, but it also means Latinos in general aren’t very interested and don’t feel included in the Republicans’ conversation,” University of Washington in Seattle professor and adviser for Latino Decisions Matt Barreto said in a statement.

But Latino Republicans are extremely interested in the upcoming contest, with 57 percent say they are very enthusiastic about voting in 2012. However, just nine percent of Latino voters polled say they will certainly vote Republican next year.

And in a match-up between Obama and Mitt Romney, 49 percent say that the president would be their definite choice, while nine percent told pollsters they were certain to vote for Romney in 2012. Of Latino Republicans, 40 percent say they would definitely vote for Romney over Obama.

The Latino Decisions poll surveyed 500 Latino voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.